Bank clerk stole money to pay for mortgage deposit

16 March 2010 | By Natalie Thomas

Bindi Dhanji went on the run just hours before being sentenced at Southwark Crown Court today.

The City of London Police is appealing for anyone who has information about the whereabouts of Dhanji.

Between 2005 and 2008 Dhanji, from Watford, took close to £60,000 from the pensioner’s account after hearing that due to ill health she had moved to France to be with her family.

At the same time she was also stealing from a second of her elderly clients.

Working from a west London branch the bank clerk gained the trust of the woman, who is in her 80s, and siphoned off more than £60,000 from her savings account.

The victim considered Dhanji, 32, to be a friend – even bringing her gifts of flowers and chocolates.

The first woman died in France in February 2008 but her family did not notify the bank until ten months later, at which point the account was suspended. In between death and notification Dhanji continued to make cash withdrawals from the victim’s savings.

In April 2009 the family complained to the bank after Dhanji’s continued to refuse them access to statements and account details.

While uncovering this fraud HSBC also identified irregularities in the savings of Dhanji’s second elderly victim.

One month later the bank clerk confessed to both crimes, claiming a man had threatened her with violence unless she gave him regular cash payments. She also told how she had targeted the women because she thought their bank statements would not be properly checked.

HSBC reimbursed the accounts of both victims and following a City of London Police investigation Dhanji pleaded guilty to two accounts of theft from an employer totalling £118,000.

The investigation found she rented this property to a member of her family while continuing to share a room with her husband at her parent’s house.